The third Serial Killer Z book, Shadows, came out a few days ago so I think it’s time for another interview. This time I’m talking to Adrienne Lecter, author of the Green Fields Series. Welcome, why don’t you start by introducing yourself… Hi, I’m Adrienne, and I love to write realistic, fast-paced, gory zombie horror books! I’m 34, I have a background in science that makes me freak out way more about what I write than any of my readers, and occasionally shoot guns at the range. Because who wouldn’t want to? Tell us about your book… My Green Fields series has been around for two years now across seven books (with a few more to come to pacify my mobs of blood-thirsty fans!). If you like your outbreak to come with a bit more of a scientific explanation, a world full of conspiracies, and a kickass female lead, you will love it! What inspired to write your zombie book/series? I had a biotech thriller that I couldn’t for the life of me come up with a sequel to. So I figured, why not escalate things and watch the world burn? Why do you write about zombies? Because they exist … Read More
Zombie Q&A: Sylvester Barzey
It’s time for another interview with a zombie author. Today, I’m talking to Sylvester Barzey, author of the Planet Dead. Welcome, why don’t you start by telling us about your book… Planet Dead is my attempt to solve a problem I had with the horror genre. I love horror movies, books, tv shows and comics but as a person of color, I noticed there are very few horror related titles that surround people from different backgrounds. Most horror movies have a white female lead, who at times starts off weak and comes out strong. Which there is nothing wrong with that, but I wanted a strong female that wasn’t made strong by the horrors she saw, but by the life, she lived. I wanted a person of color so I could show the world people of color are just as strong as any other group. They can be heroes and villains, they can be complex in many ways. The horror genre leads you to believe that people of color can only die first or be the comic relief. Planet Dead is here to break down that old thought process and give people of color heroes they can relate to, all while … Read More
Zombie Q&A: R.J. Spears
With Serial Killer Z on the shelves and The Walking Dead returning to screens this evening, it’s time for another interview with a zombie author (an author of zombie books that is, not a zombie that’s also author). Today, I’m talking to R.J. Spears, author of the Forget the Zombies series. Hi, tell us about yourself… My writing name is R.J. Spears. Google “Randy Spears,” but do it in safe company or alone and you’ll see why I went with R.J. Spears. I wanted to avoid any confusion, if you know what I mean. My trip to horror is a winding one. I was blessed with being introduced to Stephen King with his debut novel, Carrie, and that captivated me. I read a lot of horror and sci-fi in my teens and twenties. Some of it good and some not so good. I’ve always wanted to write. After first wanting to be a paleontologist as a very small child, the next thing I wanted to be was a writer. (Then a baseball player, but I sucked at that.) In high school, I wrote short stories, but most of those were science fiction. Then I got diverted into film making and my fiction … Read More
UnCommon Minds Q&A: Elizabeth S. Wolf
My new story, Sitala, has just been published in the UnCommon Minds anthology. To celebrate, I’ve been interviewing some of the authors about their stories. For the last interview, I’m talking to Elizabeth S. Wolf about Lost and Found. What was the inspiration for the uncommon mind in your story? Sounds trite but the opening image really did come to me in a dream. Then when I started to write it down, the voice of the young woman emerged. I often just keep the pen moving. You never know what might come out… What uncommon mind would you like to meet and why? I’d like to meet Rachel Carson. I recently learned that someone I knew long long ago actually supplied some of the research and references for Silent Spring. I also read Rachel’s book Sense of Wonder when I had a young child. It reminded me to slow down and really explore the world of our own backyard. Are there any authors that influenced your story or your writing in general? Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones. It’s the best book on writing I’ve come across. Shutting down the internal editor and just letting the words flow works for me. Shaping … Read More
UnCommon Minds Q&A: Michael Fountain
My new story, Sitala, has just been published in the UnCommon Minds anthology. To celebrate, I’m interviewing some of the authors about their stories. Today, I’m talking to Michael Fountain about Buddy Bolden’s Last Stand. What attracted you to the UnCommon Minds project? The editors’ call for “magical realism”, where I think I belong, though that might be a brown paper bag for people too embarrassed to ask for fantasy. What was the inspiration for the uncommon mind in your story? Ten years as a psychiatric aide and a love of eccentric history, in this case old New Orleans, when Louis Armstrong was a boy soprano and Stalebread Lacombe was in the streets. Which actor would you like to see playing your main character and why? Keith David, because his voice can slide from humor to menace and back again. A great character actor. What do you think the title of the next UnCommon anthology should be? Uncommon Abilities? Uncommon Animals? Come On, Mon: Uncommon Calypso. What are you working on now? Don’t be shy… I have several unpublished novels in constant revision on the inside of my heart: The Fox’s Daughter, a 90,000-word historical fantasy: an Irish witch and her brothers … Read More
UnCommon Minds Q&A: CB Droege
My new story, Sitala, has just been published in the UnCommon Minds anthology. To celebrate, I’m interviewing some of the authors about their stories. Today, I’m talking to CB Droege about Mixers. What was the inspiration for the uncommon mind in your story? Whenever anything bad happens to humans, there are always some who are immune. We’re very resilient animals. If our entire society is disassembled from within our minds, there will be the few who make it out undamaged, whether from planning or by chance, and these will all be thrown together to rebuild, whatever differences they might have had before the disaster. So, I was thinking about the inevitability of continued pressure against artists’ abilities to remix and recreate the art of the past, and where that might lead, and how it might go wrong, and who might be left after. What’s the setting for your story? Our own world. It’s already true that most of the policing of copyright infringement, especially on social media, is performed by algorithms, which are not answerable to humans, as anyone who’s tried to dispute a YouTube copyright violation notice already knows. Even major media creators sometimes have trouble posting their own, legal content … Read More
UnCommon Minds Q&A: Christopher Godsoe
My new story, Sitala, has just been published in the UnCommon Minds anthology. To celebrate, I’m interviewing some of the authors about their stories. Today, I’m talking to Christopher Godsoe about LEGION Protocol. What was the inspiration for the uncommon mind in your story? I’ve always been fascinated by the concepts of artificial intelligence, mind uploading, and the digitizing of human consciousness. I can’t get too much more into it without giving away the plot of the story, but I think those ideas alone could be fodder for hundreds if not thousands of stories. What are you most proud of about the story? Hopefully, that it makes people think. There’s a twist that happens at one point in the story that is meant to encourage the reader to ask themselves some very difficult questions about themselves, and about the nature of life in general. What uncommon mind would you like to meet and why? There are actually three. Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, and Alan Turing. I think that the three of them each understood deeper truths to the nature of our reality, and human mortality robbed us of them having the time to answer more of the “big questions”. A big part of what … Read More
UnCommon Minds Q&A: Sara Thompson
My new story, Sitala, has just been published in the UnCommon Minds anthology. To celebrate, I’m interviewing some of the authors about their stories. Today, I’m talking to Sara Thompson about The Dissertation. What attracted you to the UnCommon Minds project? I had been mulling over a story in my head about a ph.d. student who is writing her paper about a very young and very intelligent serial killer. I was really struggling with how to get the story out on paper as a novel. When I saw a call for submissions to UnCommon Minds, I challenged myself to write this story that was haunting me in a short story format. If nothing else, I would get it on paper and be able to move on with my life. What are you most proud of about the story? This is tough story for me to talk about because I absolutely love it. I’ve put in a few twists and I so desperately want to tell everyone about them but then that would ruin the story. I’m not good with surprises, I pretty much have to do my gift shopping right before the gift giving because it kills me to wait. This made it really … Read More
UnCommon Minds Q&A: Daniel Arthur Smith
My new story, Sitala, has just been published in the UnCommon Minds anthology. To celebrate, I’m interviewing some of the authors about their stories. Today, I’m talking to Daniel Arthur Smith about The Enemy Beyond the Walls. What attracted you to the UnCommon Minds project? I have long been an avid reader of magical realism and the UnCommon project excels at promoting the genre. What was the inspiration for the uncommon mind in your story? The current dumbing down of our society inspired me to create a world where a child who possesses the knowledge of Trigonometry is unique in her city. What are you most proud of about the story? If I succeeded, the story is an allegory for the dangers of dumbing down and villainizing intellectualism and knowledge experts. If you could merge someone else’s mind with your own, who would you choose and why? My lovely wife as I find grace through her. What uncommon mind would you like to meet and why? I’ve had a recent fascination with Lin Manuel Miranda due to his ability to merge history and allegory into new mediums. What’s the setting for your story? A lone coastal city-state shouldered by the mountains and the … Read More
UnCommon Minds Q&A: J.D. Harpley
My new story, Sitala, has just been published in the UnCommon Minds anthology. To celebrate, I’m interviewing some of the authors about their stories. Today, I’m talking to J.D. Harpley about Inamorata. What attracted you to the UnCommon Minds project? The anothology hosts are fantastic, as is the UnCommon community, and the stories! It’s a lot to get excited about ^_^ What was the inspiration for the uncommon mind in your story? Partially, the novella I was writing at the time, and partially a really cool album that had just released (Celldweller – End of an Empire) What are you most proud of about the story? One of the underlying themes is about true beauty, what it means to be beautiful, and accepting what you are, as you are. I wish more people could believe that they’re perfect in their imperfections, and that it’s wonderful. If you could merge someone else’s mind with your own, who would you choose and why? I wouldn’t! Upstairs is my personal space, but if I had to pick, probably a stranger from far away who speaks another language, so we could teach each other about our cultures and seamlessly learn another language in an instant. What uncommon … Read More